1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for creating a floating boom for collecting floatable material, such as liquid hydrocarbons, floating on the surface of a body of water.
2. Summary of the Prior Art
Conventional oil booms normally comprise an elongated tubular body, generally produced by inflation of a fluid impervious tube to which is secured a depending, oil confining skirt. These booms are normally stored on land or on ship in a collapsed state, either by flat folding of the collapsed tube or by rolling the collapsed tube on a reel. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,682,151 and No. 3,494,132 which disclose a series of inflatable plastic tubes, the ends of which are interconnected by sleeves. Integrally formed on each tube is a depending hollow fin having a weighted material such as lead shot contained in the lower longitudinal edge of the fin.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,123,911 discloses a continuous inflatable tube. One end of the continuous tube is affixed to the deployment vessel and supplied with pressurized air to effect its inflation. The second end of the tube, after it is fully deployed from the transport vessel on which it was originally stored, is then attached to either a second vessel or to a drogue or some similar means of stationing the second end of the barrier in the sea.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,325,653 provides a collapsible boom which, in its inflated condition, has double buoyancy chambers disposed on each side of a central skirt member. A tension wire is secured to the lower skirt region and two pressurizing hoses are secured to the upper skirt region above the buoyancy chambers. Inflation air is then supplied through the pressurizing air hoses with the preferable arrangement being stated to be the utilization of separate air hoses respectively supplying the individual buoyancy chambers. Pressured air is supplied to the air hoses from an external source via a rotary gland fitted at the reel core axis.
Each of the aforementioned prior art patents has the disadvantage that a leak developing in the inflatable tube can cause severe problems in maintaining the buoyancy of the boom.
An attempt was made to overcome this problem in U.S. Pat. No. 3,792,589 by providing a collapsible boom having a series of longitudinally separated inflatable compartments. Each of these compartments necessarily had to be separately filled through an individual valve as the collapsed tube was dispensed from a storage reel. This obviously greatly increased the time required for effecting the deployment of the boom.
The prior art has failed to disclose a rapidly deployable hydrocarbon retaining boom wherein the collapsible tube forming the boom has longitudinally spaced inflatable compartments insuring that a leak in one compartment does not adversely affect the functioning of the entire boom.